Family
by Pipes Flow Forever and Ever
Summary: Building a family isn't an easy thing to do, but it's certainly the most rewarding if it all works out. Joey and his son Henry probably knew that as well as anyone ever could- but somehow they'd discover it even more when Henry decides there's something he needs to say. (Part of the Hymns of Struggle series but can be read alone; beta read by AceOfIntution on tumblr and AO3


There's a distinct sound nothing else can replicate when someone rides a bike across gravely cement. The slight bounce passing over a crack. The way you can hear worn roads slowly tear apart, each footstep and tire press briefly releasing a second of a journey, and eventually so many of these touches brush against the surface that the ground begins to age alongside the tales of travelers coming home.

Today, those stories kicked up dust underneath the mismatched wheels of a new family.

Henry could still feel the rhythm of peddling in his legs when the bikes stopped to a halt. For a while now, they had been skimming the edge of the beach, riding along the pavement that lined the pale-yellow sands. With a slow blink and pan of his gaze- finally still enough to not worry about turning his head besides where he faced- the young artist marveled at how…pastel the day was. Soft. Gentle. Almost like everything was painted with watercolors.

It suited him.

It suited Joey too.

The older man skidded a bit farther than his friend before stopping, maybe enjoying the thrill of it- maybe just yet another metaphor for how the studio director lived his life.

Ah, no- for once Henry was the one that had been abrupt and surprising.

"What is it, my boy?" Mr. Drew, having peddled about a meter further, threw his head over his shoulder to look back in questioning. Of course, Henry could only see a sliver of his face this way, but like a crescent moon, just a bit of it could convey so much; in this case, warmth and curiosity.

Joey would say again and again how wonderful it was for Henry to come out of his shell.

…But he would have no idea exactly how big a leap the lad would make today.

"Oh, nothing really," Henry avoided just a second longer, his naturally calm tone hiding how immensely, indescribably nervous he was for what he had made inevitable. "Just wanted to stop for a sec and look around."

No matter how warm Joey's gaze was for him, it was still something absolutely piercing- especially with the thoughts that clambered Henry's mind- and so in discomfort he shifted to look at the beach and forced out what he hoped what was a convincing chuckle. "You don't get to see something like this every day, you know."

And as the artist shifted, so did his mentor; first his upper body twisted a bit, staring at him as a wide grin softened a touch and his brow furrowed in concern. But then he finally abided by the wishes of the man he considered his son, swinging a leg over one side of the metal bar underneath him until he was back on his feet.

"You're absolutely, positively, _undeniably_ right!" Joey hopped to agreement as he pulled his bike away from the side of the road and flicked up the kickstand. "A special day it is- it'd be oh so terribly wrong to simply speed it by!"

Another shorter, lighter grunt of a laugh as Henry let his shoulders rise and fall in a sigh of both relief and anxiety before mirroring what Joey did with his own vehicle. And soon two old bikes- a pale blue and a dusty rose- rested side by side some ways away behind their owners doing the same upon a faded bench facing the water.

It was just midmorning, the sky bright yet greyed with a thin veil of fog. It was the same mist that softened how everything looked that day; it was what made bright flowers pale upon windowsills of nearby homes and recede into their backdrop, what made each square of cement of the sidewalk fade into the next, and what made the waves ahead leave unsure how far away they truly were from the view beyond their knees.

The men were seated together, comfortably close but still allowing a gap between them to match the known but unspoken one that had begun to grow since they had decided to rest. Now, Joey very much wanted to say "tell me what's wrong- you know I'm here for you! What is it?" but…

As he thoughtlessly clasped his fingers into each other over his lap, Mr. Drew only needed to look over to see that maybe this was something Henry wanted- and would- say on his own. And so he allowed the awkwardness to manifest, its seedling welcome to choke voices away to make yet more room for the whispers of waves.

Finally, Henry began to set himself free.

"Joey…do you remember my friend?"

And somehow despite Joey looking at him before, his attention was now centered upon Henry even more so. The ginger hair upon the listener's scalp flitted just a bit with a slight, momentary breeze, hatless today so he may feel the wind of the bike ride fly around his whole body. But a simple wisp seemed to be enough to blow through his soul just sitting by his son's side, watching the way he wouldn't look him in the eye- the way Joey had turned his seated position to face him while Henry remained ever forward.

The young man had his hands clasped together, frowning at the endless light-azure before them as if maybe it held whatever words he was trying to find. His dark, almond eyes moved side to side ever so slightly, a betrayal of how everything inside him was rattled at the very idea of what he was about to say.

And yet he hesitated, his brow curling as both men waited for the one beside to talk first.

Mr. Drew eventually took that as his responsibility, unsure of why it was so vital, so important of a question.

"Do you mean…-" Despite the apprehension budding beneath his lungs, his tone was light- as whimsical as ever, like it was a line in one of the fairy tales he would weave for the children that visited his beloved studio. "…That _bright_ young lad with the smile that touched his eyes, the laugh that bounced his whole chest when I told him that joke about the lampshade? The one with a baby cradled one arm that looked like a beam of sunshine in that adorable little yellow dress of hers, with that _extraordinarily_ wide skirt fell around her like a blanket?"

It was astounding that not only was Joey spot on in one guess but that he described him and his daughter in such a way. Joey always, _always_ seemed to know how to cut through reality and unpeel each tangibility away until all that was left to be able to define what you saw was completely and utterly magical.

It said a lot about him, about how he saw the world.

About how he wished other people to see it.

"…Yeah," Henry confirmed after a second frozen till it lasted two. Jet black hair fell haphazardly between his fingers as one hand rubbed the back of his head. And then…another chuckle- a genuine one this time as Joey unwittingly romanticized a picture that needed none. "I think we're thinking about the same guy."

But newfound ease was fleeing just as soon as it came and soon there was silence again, one extensive enough that the old mentor reluctantly shifted his knees back towards the sea, paralleling his partner by replacing his hands back to their polite fold in front of him.

The silence carried with it a leak of worries, a new thought that appeared with each lap of the waves upon the sand, growing microscopically but certainly nearer and nearer just as the water did to their bench. One idea seemed to climb over the next. Now, Joey's earlier guess was only a bit of a gamble; Henry wasn't someone with a terrible lot of friends. _"Not that he's not a good friend to have!"_ the ripening redhead suddenly heard in his own head.

No, it was more that…Henry was careful with who he chose to let into his life.

Now for the man in question, Joey couldn't remember his name at the moment- he learned faces much better than their labels- but he _did_ know a thing or two about him. He was a delightful boy with glittery eyes and a grin to match- one that carried a very dark weight upon his shoulders that smoked up and tried to cloud the glow about his expression…but no matter how forceful he had to be to smile, no matter how heavy the bags underneath his eyes tried to pull them down to a close, he would not lose the fight to ensure life had purpose.

As difficult a battle it may be, it must also have been an easy one to choose, Joey surmised, as this widower held his own cherished child in his arms.

It was only a few times the young animator allowed these two people from two separate pieces of his life to meet, but both had learned a lot about each other from those brief exchanges. In the very least Joey must have of he to feel the depth of empathy hollow his heart as much as it did now.

And certainly, the hush Henry had permitted once again let the care of someone he barely knew to wrap around his heart until it was a bit harder to breathe.

Was he ill? Was the baby ill? Are they facing yet another trouble after the mother's death? Oh goodness, if anything more had happened to that family, Joey had absolutely no idea what he would do-

But as the recent father of one kind became more panicked for the recent father of another, it never occurred to him that maybe he should have been searching for something good rather than for another thunderstorm on the horizon.

And indeed, maybe there would never be something better than what Henry was going to say.

"He's-"

Henry would know within moments if all that he had so cautiously cultivated between he and the man he had begun to treat like a father would fall through the spaces between his fingers like trying to pick up the sand underneath his shoes.

Was it worth it?

As Henry blinked and allowed his lower lip to find refuge between his teeth, he already knew the answer.

If Joey really loved him, he would love _all_ of him.

And he would have to live without him if he couldn't.

Henry felt his air lock itself further inside his chest.

…Until it was exhaled out in maybe one of the most important breaths of Henry's life.

"…More than just a friend."

And finally, Henry knew he couldn't keep his gaze away, both to be brave for himself and to satiate a burning curiosity that gripped his shoulders and compelled him to watch dare he say the most significant person in his life react to the beginning of discovering something that made him who he really was.

Even in all the quiet moments at this stop beside the road, this was the one that meant the most and felt the longest.

The eyelids over the elder man's golden-brown irises fluttered.

"You mean that he's…family, my boy?" A grin returned to his face. "Oh, I'm _so_ glad you feel that close to someone!"

It was a genuine reaction. If Henry was building a life for himself, then he deserved and was worthy of the nearness, tenderness of people you love so much that they feel like you've known them for all eternity.

…But of course, the simplest phrasing of the truth wouldn't be enough to explain it all. This was just a toe in the water- a drop out of the whole bucket.

"'Family' is one way to put it," he mumbled in a humor that would only fly above Joey's head for a second longer.

Maybe there was a way to explain it that he could understand.

"Joey, you know how you…-" Hesitation. Not because he wasn't happy about it- he certainly was- but because it was something accepted rather than spoken, and so it was still so fresh upon the tongue. "…you think of me as your son, right?"

Mr. Drew in all his delighted misunderstanding simply gave a bright-eyed nod of agreement, waiting for him to continue.

"Well, the more time I spend with him, the more I feel a bit like…Linda's dad."

A bit of a squint and an eyebrow raise accompanied by the tilt of the chin from the eccentric cartoonist. A pause was what it took for Henry to absorb this- to realize he should correct himself.

"No, no, Joey" the young man responded to Joey's questioning expression, "I mean-…I don't mean I feel like _him._ It's more like…"

His hands stretched from his lap, open palms begging towards the sea for the words he needed.

"I feel like…maybe we're her _dads-_ both of us, together, because-"

And his hands fell back down, limp as Henry gave Joey a look with…a smile. It was nervous, but it was there, oh so slightly across his face. Of course, he was scared. But Henry hadn't chosen to tell him for nothing; he hadn't chosen Joey to be his family for nothing.

And so despite it all, his heart swelled at the possibility that their family could be even bigger, somehow fuller with love and adoration.

"…I love him."

And Joey's expression seemed to melt away, helpless to the raw feelings and to the presentation of the unexpected. His heart knew before his mind could sparse it out what it Henry had just said- had been trying to say all along.

"…Oh."

Total, complete trepidation as Henry sat on the right side of the bench, hunched over his lap with his hands holding each other for dear life as his shaking stare pleaded straight to Joey's soul. But expectation is rarely ever only one of dread; for each fear there is a hope, and while the dark-haired artist feared rejection, he hoped even more so for acceptance.

" _Please..."_ he began to speak inside his head, but he couldn't find out how to complete it- couldn't even begin to ask what exactly it was that he wanted from him.

And so he let Joey answer it on his own.

"How… _wonderful."_

And with just two words, it wasn't just all the colors of the world that stopped holding their breath in the morning fog. It was like the universe flooded itself into this one scene, this one view Henry had right now in his life. The water was crystal, sparkling blues and teals; the clouds seemed to shine as they drifted through the sky; each blade of grass that found its home in cracks of pavement grew taller and greener with new days to come.

But the thing before him that beamed the most was the loving smile inching across Joey's face, wrinkles made from joy doubtlessly scarring themselves even deeper forever, for everyone to see even if a time would come when there was nothing to smile about.

But right now, he couldn't imagine not smiling ever again.

It would carry with him forevermore because Joey loved his son, and for him to be able to be his most authentic, happy self was the most treasured blessing his aged heart could ever receive.

And Henry finally began to accept that maybe things are just as good as can be, that dreams do come true. He was free. Free to be in love, free to never hide it at least from the one person he'd want to share this with always.

As they sat next to the sighing shore at one fleeting rest stop along emotion's trails, it seemed to be impossible just how fantastic things could be if only you just believed.


End file.
